Best James Madison Quotes

James Madison Quotes About Government, Freedom, Tyranny, Education & Democracy! In the United States, James Madison was a founding father, drafted the initial versions of the Constitution, co-wrote the Federalist Papers, and drafted and championed the Bill of Rights. He and Thomas Jefferson founded the Democrat-Republican Party, and he served as president in 1808. In Virginia, on March 16, 1751, he was born in Port Conway. Madison took classes in these fields and Latin, Greek, physics, and philosophy. Following his 1771 graduation from the school’s president, Reverend John Witherspoon, he continued to finish his studies for a few more years.

Madison was unsuccessful in his campaign for a seat in the Virginia Assembly, but he was afterwards appointed to the Governor’s Council. He was a staunch advocate of the American-French alliance throughout the Revolution, and he handled much of the council’s communication with France.

At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Madison represented the state of Virginia. A three-part federal government with an executive, legislative, and judiciary branch was one of his concepts in his Virginia Plan. Even though he initially supported George Washington and his government, James Madison quickly conflicted with them over financial matters.

President Madison, who ran on the Democratic-Republican ticket, won the 1808 election by an impressive majority. After defeating the Federalist Charles C. Pinckney and the Independent Republican George Clinton, he received approximately 70% votes of the Electoral College. A fantastic win gave how widely reviled the Embargo Act of 1807. Even after his retirement, Madison’s ideas on political matters were important.

It was June 28, 1836, when Madison passed away in the Montpelier manor house. His words and ideas are priceless for anyone interested in political theory and democracy. Through his labour and ideas, the U.S. underwent a substantial transformation.

Best James Madison Quotes

1. “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.” – James Madison

2. “No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” – James Madison

3. “Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.” – James Madison

4. “Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.” – James Madison

5. “There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” – James Madison

6. “History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.” – James Madison

7. “The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority’s ability to harm a minority.” – James Madison

8. “If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.” – James Madison

9. “Every new & successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance. And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.” – James Madison

10. “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.” – James Madison

11. “It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Govt. from interference in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others.” – James Madison

12. “Our Constitution represents the work of the finger of Almighty God.” – James Madison

13. “The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.” – James Madison

14. “A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.” – James Madison

15. “It is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law than to declare it void after it has passed.” – James Madison

16. “In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.” – James Madison

17. “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one….” – James Madison

18. “Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” – James Madison

19. “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” – James Madison

20. “A president is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.” – James Madison

21. “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” – James Madison

22. “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation and foreign commerce. … The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives and liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.” – James Madison

23. “The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.” – James Madison

24. “You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” – James Madison

25. “Equal laws protecting equal rights… the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country.” – James Madison

26. “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” – James Madison

27. “Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation.” – James Madison

28. “We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. A Republic cannot stand upon bayonets, and when the day comes when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nations to the changed conditions.” – James Madison

29. “The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.” – James Madison

30. “If a man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else.” – James Madison

31. “The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money.” – James Madison

32. “A bad cause seldom fails to betray itself.” – James Madison

33. “Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.” – James Madison

34. “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” – James Madison

35. “It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws are so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” – James Madison